


Save the Cat-tain!

by Lunarium



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Gaming, Getting Together, Mild Sexual Content, Minor Keith/Shiro (Voltron), Multi, Pre-Canon, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:14:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29600208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: Before they became MFE pilots, Shiro was the force that brought them together.
Relationships: James Griffin/Ryan Kinkade/Ina Leifsdottir/Nadia Rizavi
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1
Collections: Black Is Beautiful 2021





	Save the Cat-tain!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Pegasus143](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pegasus143/gifts).



> Couldn't help but want to write this one! Used the prompt: _How did they meet originally? Were any of them roommates? Did they get along, or even talk to each other, before they were chosen to be the MFE pilots? What about studying or training together?_
> 
> The game Ryan and friends play used Among Us as some inspiration. 
> 
> I also noticed you've included Keith/Shiro as a ship you enjoy in another letter, so I hope you don't mind that they're featured as a very minor/background ship here. ♥

Look. 

Takashi “Shiro” Shirogane never asked for this fame. But the poor guy earned himself some global attention by breaking all of the records, achieving near perfect scores, winning hearts with his charismatic personality and natural leadership at the Galaxy Garrison; so what better way to honor the local golden student than with a video game?

The game programmers must have been some fellow colleagues at the Garrison. Someone really good with computers and with a sense of humor to boot. Either it had to be Shiro’s own friends taking a crack at him or someone at the school obsessed with him. Whoever they were, Ryan had to thank them for the hours spent obsessing over this game. 

While the game began as an in-joke at the Garrison, it soon leaked out into the open, and naturally became the hottest thing trending globally. If the gameplay didn’t suck you in, then the quirky story behind it would at least leave you tickled. 

_Objective: Save the Cat-tain!_ is about Captain Shiro, a tiny pixelated cat captain of a spaceship who was taken hostage by some evil alien toads and requires saving by his crew mates. Two teams of four (randomized or via invitation) from opposite ends of the ship race to save their beloved feline leader. The team to reach Captain Shiro first wins, but individual gamers are ranked by how many tasks they complete along the way. Got to keep the game fresh and entertaining every round. 

*

Lucky. 

That was whoever got to see Shiro in the flesh at their school. Ryan’s own school had one representative who only stood behind a booth as they signed up—wonderful person, but refused any questions about the infamous game and the inspiration behind it. 

Not that Ryan wanted desperately to join the Galaxy Garrison. He had other plans involving his first love ever since he first held his father’s mini phone camera at age two. If that didn’t work out, it wasn’t a big deal; one didn’t need a degree to keep filming—his backlog of documentations was evident of that. So if his application wasn’t accepted, then the Galaxy Garrison it would be. 

Maybe he’ll get to meet this Shiro. 

The upper right corner of Ryan’s screen flashed as a pop up displayed a message: _IReallyLikeYouCauseIJust is requesting to join_. 

“Nadia,” Ryan snorted. The new girl down the block who had immediately launched herself into his life, not that he had any complaint. Where he enjoyed observing and thinking, she wore her heart on her sleeve and freely reacted—and overreacted—to everything. They made a great team. Seeing her apply for the Garrison, he had to admit, had made his heart leap. 

Maybe, just maybe, this was the start of something…a new friend, the seeds of a new era with someone beautiful, vibrant, lively… 

“HEY!” Nadia’s voice nearly bled Ryan’s ears had he not turned his volume down in preparation. 

“Hey,” he said. “Want to aim for that number one rank?”

“You mean beat ‘k_gane’?” she said. “Has anyone ever beat them?” 

“A few have attempted in vain,” Ryan laughed, and he filled her in on the most recent and fruitless exploits by Griffinz and teh_tailor to dethrone k_gane from the top rank. 

“And then, just as Griffinz was about finish off the Dark Lord Toad and rescue Cat-tain Shiro, k_gane just pops out of a vent, slashes off the final toad and wins the game!” 

“Dude!” 

“And that isn’t all—they were on the same team!” 

_“DUDE!”_ The sound of a fist pounding on the desk accompanied Nadia’s scream-laughing. “Hey—Ryan! Check who’s on our team!” 

Well, speak of the devil. The game algorithm had just randomized the teams, and there was Nadia and Ryan’s little sprites, lime green and tangerine, standing next to none other than the sky blue Griffinz and a hot pink sprite with the name Tölva hovering above their head. 

“Do you go by any other name than ‘I-Really-Like-You-Cause-I-Just’—?” Griffinz’s angry voice roared through the audio, breaking the ice. Ryan and Nadia burst into guffaws. 

“You okay, man?” Ryan asked. “Been trying to beat that ‘Gane kid in a game?”

The growl was all the answer he needed. 

“We have reason to believe this ‘Gane kid’ is a classmate of ours,” Tölva spoke. “Circumstances at our school following the visitation of Takashi Shirogane have indicated that the identity of this account must belong to a classmate who has gained the attention of the lieutenant himself.” 

“Wait, you got to meet Shiro? Lucky!” Nadia yelled. 

Ryan whistled. Wow, if the top rank holder had gotten the star of the show’s attention…Shiro must be loving the fame. 

They spent the evening devising a plan to beat against the guy, but the first round proved futile. So did the second round. And the third. And the fourth. Well into the night they played, and soon Ryan found himself no longer asking for a randomized team but wishing to play with the same three every time: Nadia, of course, whose energy was infectious every time, Griffinz with his vendetta and stubborn passion in saving their Cat-tain which Ryan found oddly charming, and Tölva their strategist who only spoke when needed, but when she did, they listened. 

And yet, all four combined were no match against k_gane. 

*

Listen. 

“Maybe he’s a robot and we’ve only mistaken him for your classmate?—Oh! Maybe he’s Shiro himself!” Nadia said one night. Their adventures in trying to save the Cat-tain had become a defining feature of that summer. 

Griffinz refused the notion. “No it’s him! You should have seen what I caught him doing at the store today!” 

“And here we go again,” Nadia intoned to Ryan, muting her mic from the others. 

Ryan grinned. In truth he didn’t mind joining Griffinz on his misadventures. Griffinz’s voice, when he wasn’t screaming profanities and declaring vengeance on his eternal nemesis, had a rather suave voice that Ryan couldn’t help but swoon over, and Tölva, whenever she spoke her next set of plans before a game, spoke in a tone that gave Ryan pleasurable tingles on the back of his neck. 

But, despite living relatively close, Ryan didn’t get the chance to meet the other half of his team. He and Nadia often brought them up when they hung out together, cackling over their strange relationship and wondering what they looked like, or how they were doing that day, or if they would ever meet.

The school year had drawn to a close, he and Nadia graduated, and the summer came and went. Before Ryan knew it he and Nadia were carpooling to the Galaxy Garrison, his backup plan winning out after all. 

Strolling down the hall of the dormitory on his first day, Ryan’s heart leapt when his ears picked up a very familiar voice. 

“Griffinz?” he said under his breath, and earned himself a playful swat from Nadia.

“Really?” she teased, but the little blush informed him that she heard it too. 

A guy ahead stood next to a girl in a short bob. When they heard Ryan and Nadia, both turned around. 

“Er, yes?” the guy said. “Someone called my name?” 

“Just passing through!” Nadia laughed and tugged Ryan away, although Ryan was right where his new dorm room is located. The girl honed in on them. 

“You’re the girl with the very long and witty screen name,” she said matter-of-factly. 

“Wait,” Nadia said, gasping loudly. “You’re Tölva?!” 

The girl nodded. 

Ryan couldn’t believe it. “So, you _are_ Griffinz!” 

“Keep it down!” 

Grinning, the four properly introduced themselves. To their surprise they learned that Nadia and Ina would be sharing a dorm just as Ryan and James would. 

Fate. 

It had to be fate. 

*

Life. 

Ryan met the infamous k_gane, Keith, who mostly kept to himself. He met the famous Shiro who was everything and more than Ryan imagined. Never did he think that one day the four of them would be working under Shiro’s command— _Admiral_ Shirogane’s command. Nor that one time Shiro was indeed a prisoner, and Keith had saved him. 

Life had a funny way of working out like that. 

And speaking of the strange workings of life…

They had always been a tight-knit group since their first day at the Garrison, yet their feelings deepened and changed during the Galra attack on Earth. What was once a deep friendship found Ryan exchanging kisses and lingering embraces, but it wasn’t just with one person. 

He loved Nadia completely, and had he never met Ina and James he would have married her, no question. But plenty a night had seen Ryan and James gasping one another’s names as they gripped one another tight, naked and sweaty, filling the other with their come; by the morning they would speak no mention of this. And every time Ryan met eyes with Ina he felt his soul crack in two as though she could peer into him and knew his most painful secrets, and he yearned deeply to be by her side. 

It terrified him. What was happening to him? Shouldn’t he just be with one? Or had the pressures of the war, the threat of death like a shadow at every corner, been getting to him? They had already lost so many—colleagues at the Garrison, family, friends…

Although he tried not to show it, Iverson looked on the verge of collapse, and a few times Ryan had caught him wiping away cold sweat. A few of Ryan’s own colleagues broke down. Of all the matters the Garrison had prepared them for, an actual global threat by a superior alien army was the last thing anyone had anticipated.

Ryan will never forget the moment he awoke to Nadia’s screams with the news of Adam’s death. Grief rippled through the Garrison; Curtis could barely hold himself in the weeks following. When Veronica disappeared and was presumed dead, Ryan was certain that was going to end Curtis. Seeing him and Veronica embrace was enough to make Ryan want to squeeze Nadia tight against himself. 

Ryan saw Nadia and Ina together, often with hands entwined when they thought no one was looking, and the manner in which James and Ina spoke together made Ryan wonder if they were soulmates. The tension in the teasing between Nadia and James both filled Ryan with jealousy and inflamed him with giddiness, anticipating and desiring seeing a kiss between them. 

It wasn’t until one day while waiting deployment on a dire mission that Nadia’s voice broke through the radio.

“If we all survive this, let’s marry each other.” 

Ryan had never been so glad that Nadia was the one unafraid to speak what everyone was thinking. 

*

Love. 

There could be no other perfect word to describe how Ryan felt for the three of them. What began as frivolous camaraderie during their time playing the game blossomed into a tightly-knit friendship at the Garrison, and that love only kept growing and maturing from there. 

They married some time after the war had been won. Before families, friends, the Garrison, and allies they exchanged vows. 

Not everyone they invited could make it. The most notable absence was their beloved admiral. Shiro’s attendance was a shot in the dark as he was currently located several galaxies away on an important mission, but he had made the promise to be present. Ryan didn’t hold it against him. After all, he had recorded the wedding for Shiro and the others to view later. 

Just as he was contemplating on a personal message to add to his wedding documentation, the Black Lion landed several yards from the reception area. A panicked and wearied Keith burst out. 

“Hey, Keith,” Nadia greeted Shiro’s husband. “Don’t worry, you didn’t miss the reception, you can clean up and get dressed if you wan—”

“Guys, sorry,” Keith panted, looking close to tears. “It’s Shiro. He’s captured. Old supporters of the Fire of Purification. They cornered us and—I tried to fight them off, but we were outnumbered.

“I hate to ask this from you, but everyone’s in a bad spot—and Shiro, he—” 

“Hey, easy!” Nadia said, laughing. “We got this, don’t we?” 

“Affirmative,” Ina said the same moment that James nodded and said, “Of course. You can count on us, Captain Shirogane.” 

Ryan almost had to laugh. 

“Get ready, team.” 

Objective: Save the Admiral.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: Ina's screen name, Tölva, is Icelandic for computer, and it's a portmanteau word that combines tala (number) and völva (prophetess).


End file.
